This an edited version of a homily DEACON GARY STONE delivered in St Johns Wood-The Gap parish in Brisbane recently
TODAY’S first reading gives an extraordinary account of Peter coming to the house of the Roman officer, Cornelius, and telling him, “The truth I have now come to realise is that God does not have favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down upon all the listeners. Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were astonished that the Holy Spirit could be poured out over what they considered pagans.
The news and teaching that Jesus passed on was explosive stuff in the Middle East at the time of these events.
More so than any other of his teachings, people were astonished that he could be suggesting, no, in fact demanding, that if they really loved God, then they should also love their neighbours.
This was the real test of love’s authenticity.
The people of this time had been conditioned by centuries of tribalism, where neighbours were the enemy, and should not be associated with, let alone loved. And so conflict and vengeance were the norm.
Some might say that nothing much has changed in the past 2000 years in that part of the world.
The radical teaching of Jesus to love our neighbours has certainly not been embraced in many places in the world.
Despite the civility of our society in general, sadly some people in Australia today would prefer that we didn’t allow asylum seekers here. Others are uncomfortable with people of different ethnicities living among us.
On an international level, for many years successive Australian governments deliberately ignored the struggling neighbouring peoples of our region. Only when their societies collapsed into anarchy did we intervene.
The people of this parish, by contrast, have been faithfully following Jesus’ teaching for many years in loving the neighbours of our region, across many countries.
This weekend we celebrate 12 years of being Friends and Partners with East Timor (FPET). We are known throughout the Church in Australia, and in Timor, for making a most significant contribution to the health, education and capacity development of these struggling neighbours of ours.
We started a mission to East Timor in 2000, and have sustained that ever since, delivering about $1 million in aid.
Our partner parish in Atabae, in the west of Timor Leste, has about 10,000 people living in 17 villages.
The terrain is mountainous and difficult to traverse, and it is very difficult to grow crops in.
Most of the people live in poverty. Malaria, dengue fever, malnutrition, and tuberculosis are endemic. There is still no regular supply of electricity or water to most villages.
Our priority from the start has been to develop a human relationship with these people. We’ve done that primarily by visiting them.
Last August, our FPET secretary John O’Hara, our incoming president Lindsay Stokes, and I visited the parish, reviewed the projects we have been funding, and joyfully experienced time with our friends and partners there.
Last February, our treasurer Eric Muir and Mike Dooley visited again, this time for the joyous occasion of the founding of “Friends and Partners with Australia” which is a mirror parish organisation to ours here, that will take responsibility for identifying priorities and managing projects for the betterment of the community.
This was a landmark development for us – to see the locals grow to the point of taking more responsibility for their own development.
Back home, our core group of about 20 regular members has continued to meet regularly and enjoy our own fellowship as a parish group. Mary Hodge has been working with our parish schools raising awareness and some funds.
We are planning to bring some youth from Atabae out to Brisbane in July to work with our schools and our youth during Catholic Education Week.
Meanwhile, back in Timor, our education co-ordinator Anne Chapman has been doing great work training English teachers. About 170 youth have been enrolled in English classes.
Anne has also been co-ordinating adult education, including training in computer skills. More than 30 young people have been funded to do advanced English and life skills training at an academy known as SOLS in Deli.
Other points of celebration for us this year include the ordination of two priests, Hippolyta and Pascual, who we have been funded through seven years of training.
One agricultural student we have supported, Chris, has done an outstanding job in introducing new agricultural techniques in the parish.
His research and our funding of materials have dramatically improved the yield and type of crops that can be produced there.
The parish youth group has grown from strength to strength. Supported by our funding it has undertaken a number of community development activities, particularly training the youth in conflict resolution and social skills.
We have supported the development of education for the children. There are about 1000 children in the three parish schools.
We have been continuing to fund the training of five student teachers at the Bacau teacher training college. The three teachers we have previously funded have secured government-funded teaching jobs in the parish schools.
The centre of our efforts has remained to be our community health training program, and we plan to maintain it, with a priority focus for getting the government to takeover funding of the health program, to maintain the education programs, and to develop our youth connections.
We do this to live out Jesus’ command to love our neighbour. Jesus in the Gospel today commissions us to “go out and bear fruit – fruit that will last”. We have been bearing much fruit and have been good friends.
